Chicken Salad Toast Cups: use store bought rotisserie chicken and regular old white sandwich bread to make these easy and delicious tea sandwiches. Perfect for a tea party, picnic, or as an appetizer.
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Little cups made out of toast and filled with fresh chicken salad are a great party food to add to your tea party, luncheon, or picnic. The crunchy toast cups are made out of regular white bread and a muffin pan. And the fresh chicken salad is quick to make with a rotisserie chicken. If you're a chicken salad fan, you will love this easy chicken salad cups recipe.
These little chicken salad bites are a real favourite of mine. I've been making them for ages, and they're an old standby for tea parties -and yes, we are those people who seem to have tea parties on the regular, lol.
They're really easy to make, and they always impress guests. They're also so good! You will want to make them the next time you're having a tea party. They are perfect as part of the savory main course, along with finger sandwiches.
Memories of Girl Guides and Tea Gardens
The first time I had these little toast cups way back when I was a Girl Guide -which is the Canadian equivalent to a Girl Scouts.. I loved Girl Guides growing up. It was such a great part of my life.
One of the things our unit did to fundraise was an annual bazar. There were tables for shoppers to visit, like the plant table, the bake sale table, and the white elephant table. There was also aways a tea garden. We had a little menu of tea, tea sandwiches, and sweets and us girls with the help of our leaders were the waitresses.
We always used to serve these toast cups with assorted salads in them -egg, tuna, or chicken. And they were always a hit with customers -ie. our moms and grandmothers, haha. I remember so fondly being in the back kitchen making more toast cups with my leader as we served.
I don't think I ever made them at home growing up, but at some point I was hosting a tea party as an adult and remembered these. I've been making them ever since, and everyone always loves them.
Chicken
The ingredient list for these chicken salad toast cups is quite simple. I like to use a store bought rotisserie chicken to make my chicken salad. It'a quick and the rotisserie chicken is always nice and moist. I remove the bones and skin and cut the whole chicken in to large chunks. It does make a large amount of chicken salad. So if you want a smaller amount you could cook a chicken breast at home. You could also make this chicken salad recipe using leftover chicken.
Toast Cups
The toast cups are made out of regular sliced bread. I usually make them out of white bread, but you can do with with whole wheat if you prefer, or do a mix of both. One slice of bread makes one toast cup. I always use real butter for making the toast cups. The flavor of the real butter really comes through. I won't use margarine for this recipe, but you can use it if you prefer.
Storage and Serving
This is a great make ahead. Make your chicken the night before serving and store in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap in the fridge. Right before serving stir the chicken salad and if it's become a bit dry add a little more mayo and stir to mix it in.
The toast cups will stay nice and crunchy for a day or two in an airtight container before you stuff them.
Add the chicken salad right before serving. I like to garnish the chicken salad cups with some onion sprouts, or alfalfa sprouts. You could also use some green onions or chives for garnish.
If you have a gluten free guest you could use lettuce cups to serve the chicken salad as a gluten free option. Or make your toast cup out of gluten free bread.
You can also use these toast cups in different ways to serve egg salad, or tuna salad, but chicken salad is our very favorite way to fill these cute cups. They're perfect for a tea party on a special occasion or as easy appetizers, or a great idea for a picnic.
My favourite is to have these toast cups with chicken salad, but you could use tuna if you like or egg salad as a vegetarian option.
These are perfect for a tea party, and would even be great for a picnic -just pack the salad and toast cups separately and assemble at the picnic.
Yesterday I shared my spring tea party and these were part of the tea party menu.
Recipe
Chicken Salad Toast Cups
Ingredients
For the Chicken Salad
- 1 whole rotisserie chicken chopped
- 2 stalks of celery diced
- ¼ red onion diced
- salt and black pepper to taste
- ¾ cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
- ½ cup onion sprouts for garnish
For the Toast Cups
- 1 loaf white sandwich bread
- ½ cup butter softened
Instructions
- To make the chicken salad, start by cutting up your whole rotisserie chicken and removing all the bones and skin. Dice any large pieces of the chicken and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Chop red onion, and celery. Place in the mixing bowl with the chicken.
- Add salt and pepper and mayo or miracle whip and stir through the chicken mixture to create a moist salad.
- For the toast cups, butter both sides of a slice of bread, cut off the crusts with a sharp knife.
- Push the bread into a muffin pan, by placing one finger in the middle of each side. This will create the little flower/cup shape.
- Bake the toast at 350 for 20-30 until golden brown and toasted.
Let the toast cups cool. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve. Will keep for a day or two if sealed. - To serve, fill the toast cups with chicken salad and garnish with some sprouts.
Notes
Nutrition
With homemade Chicken Salad Toast Cups, life really is a party!
More Tea Party Recipe Inspiration
You might also enjoy our Turkey Sandwiches with Cranberry Mayo here.
Also check out our Easy Food Processor Scones recipe here.
You might also like our Shortbread Cookies recipe here.
Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist says
These are such a family favourite and perfect for entertaining.